How is macOS Sierra running on older Macs?

[crewkid89]

It is a barometer showing that performance is indeed impacted.

Think much?

The screensaver isn't an accurate barometer of its ability to render websites, or play video, or efficiently handle memory and paging. Real world usage (which is what you kept railing against with your screensaver test) matters much more than your decided benchmark. Does the thing do what I need it to do and does it do it efficiently? If the answer is "yes" then it works. I don't use a screensaver so your metric is useless to me.

 

[rayward]

I'm getting daily (at least) freezes on my iMac (see sig. for specs). Very frustrating as it hosts my media library for my ATVs - not a day has passed that I have not had to go and force-shut-down and reboot my Mac since updating to Sierra.

I reset the PRAM and SMC, and this appears to have cured the problem. It's run for two days straight without crashing.

 

[elf69]

I got a 2009 unibody macbook with 8gb ram and ssd.

only real things that are different for my use:

longer battery run time and love how when sorting files you can now tell folder to stay at top like in windows!

 

[Mr. 123]

I am running Sierra on my new 2015 MacBook Air 13 with no problems atm. However when I updated my 2011 MacBook Pro 13 (with 16GBs of ram and an SSD) it made the computer useless. I reverted to El Capitan using time machine and am having no issues on El Cap. However with having Sierra on the new Air, it would be nice to have the same system on my Pro (especially iCloud Desktop which I now use on the Air). Will the 12.1 update be out soon? And could it have been a problem during the install on the Pro?

Thankful for any good tips!

 

[Tarek]

@Mr. 123 It is most probably a software problem because your hardware is more than capable of running Sierra smoothly.

 

[sniffs]

Got Sierra running on a late 2010 Macbook Air with 128gb ssd and 4gb ram. It actually runs fairly well.. definitely a daily driver.

 

[Mr. 123]

@Mr. 123 It is most probably a software problem because your hardware is more than capable of running Sierra smoothly.

All right so it should be fine if I install it again? I use the computer for composing music so it really has to be fast. Maybe I should wait a few .1 updates.

 

[RiderX]

Don't trust what people say at forums. Try it out yourself with a test installation. That's the correct way to answer the question: "Should I upgrade or not?"

 

[Tarek]

@Mr. 123 try a fresh installation and see if that helps. As mentioned above me, you'll never know until you try.

 

[laertemeira]

Fine so far. 2009 MP 4.1 flashed to 5.1.

Hi Border. I have a 2009 flashed to 5,1 too. Are you using a standard GT120 video card? I have a ASUS Matrix HD7970 and like to now how Sierra is running with PCs or Macs aftermarket video cards. Best regards!

 

[Decimotox]

Working well on my mid-2010 13" MBP. Was the stock model I upgraded with a 275 GB Crucial SSD, but kept the RAM at 4 GB (for the time being, will be going to 8 GB soon). Battery life is slightly better than El Cap, but I need to get a new battery anyway. I'm getting about 4 1/2 hours of web browsing. Could do much better. But overall, doing great. No fan issues or anything.

 

[rayward]

I reset the PRAM and SMC, and this appears to have cured the problem. It's run for two days straight without crashing.

OK, my Mac has taken to crashing again. At this point, I'm going to restore a pre-upgrade back-up and sit this one out until Apple fixes it.

 

[Lankyman]

One thing I don't understand is Siri on the desktop. Most desktops are connected by ethernet and yet if you do that Siri keeps saying it can't help you unless you switch on Wifi as it doesn't know where you are? What is that all about - pointless.

 

[kwokaaron]

One thing I don't understand is Siri on the desktop. Most desktops are connected by ethernet and yet if you do that Siri keeps saying it can't help you unless you switch of Wifi as it doesn't know where you are? What is that all about - pointless.

Haven't tried it with an ethernet connection but it's probably a bug with Siri thinking it's on an iOS device, and hence there wouldn't be such thing as internet via an ethernet connection, with it only checking if the Wi-Fi is on or off.

 

[Tarek]

Plus, the latest MacBooks don't even have an ethernet port, so maybe that's one of the reasons.

 

[Lankyman]

Plus, the latest MacBooks don't even have an ethernet port, so maybe that's one of the reasons.

So why make it available to Desktops then which in the main use a wired connection - ill thought through.

 

[GadgetGeek407]

I have like 6 different machines from a 12" macbook, 13 retina pro, 27 imac 2013, and two 21" imac 2013 models. I am having no issues on any of the machines except one of my 21" imac at the office, upgraded and it was super slow to open up any apps would just bounce forever and bring the beachball for the silliest tasks, just very sluggish. I then formatted my entire drive and did a clean install. Still the same issue but now to add to it, at shut down I get a black screen with the mouse. Does this mean I may have a bad hard drive or is there some other issue since others have also mentioned issues that some are not having?

Another thread on here talked about an individual with the same issue and he was told to sign out off icloud and back in? He said this fixed it.... Can anyone else relate? I run VMWARE with windows 10 and even shutting that down and restarting takes a long while.

 

[fischersd]

One thing I don't understand is Siri on the desktop. Most desktops are connected by ethernet and yet if you do that Siri keeps saying it can't help you unless you switch on Wifi as it doesn't know where you are? What is that all about - pointless.

Because your desktop doesn't have a built in GPS. If you turn on wifi, Siri can get your approximate location from wifi - Ethernet doesn't do that. (there's been databases built up over time - but it'll also get the information from your phone - by both connecting to the same SSID using the GPS of your phone) It will use that information to give you location aware results.

Just make the Ethernet connection the first one in the order in your network settings - so that's always used as the default.

 

[m0nkeyb0y]

2011 Macbook Air, 4Gb, Crucial 256Gb SSD.

I've seen lower battery life (impression, anyway), but Safari freezes up 5-6 times a day, requiring Activity Monitor and killing the unresponsive Safari threads. That happened maybe 1-2 week on El Cap. Flash is not installed.

 

[Appleuser4life60077]

I am running Sierra on a mid 2009 white macbook which is unsupported, had to install it with dosdude's hack. It seems to run it very well with the exception of the trackpad being seen as a basic mouse. specs on my macbook are 2.13 c2d. 4gb ram and a 160 mechanical hard drive. so far quite happy with the way it runs Sierra, however tonight will be a week of it running it so it is a fairly new install.

 

[natcin]

seems to be okay from various replies on this thread, but just wanted to get a confirmation.

MacBook Air (Mid-2011) 4GB RAM 256GB HDD currently running Lion 10.7.5.

have been putting off upgrades for years, but now, too many native apps are no longer supported, e.g Safari can't be updated, and i can't even sync my iPhone iOS10 anymore since the iTunes version is also un-supported.

okay to upgrade directly to Sierra? seeing how old it is, are there any differences in doing an App Store upgrade or clean install?

thanks in advance.

 

[elf69]

I did an app store upgrade to sierra on my macbook then after did a reinstall over web and has been running very smooth after.

but two other mac just went to el cap via store and all good.
But you cannot upgrade your ram.
In daily use my macbook can use up to 4.3GB ram while at work.

 

[Nick11Mac]

Things working fine on my mid 2010 MBP. Put MacOS Sierra on it within a few days of its availability. Have not had any problems with it.

 

[audicat]



 

[elf69]

I'm running 10.12 on my 2011 iMac, it feels the same as El Capitan.

True but the file arrangement is better.

when you sort by name it now keeps folders at top just like windows which I find easier to locate files/folder over el cap sort by name regardless of type.

biggest gain in my macbook is battery life, got much better. Mute point in imac though.